Willem van Tongeren - Vaassen NL
Posted by: 
dreamhummie
N 52° 17.299 E 005° 58.104
31U E 702447 N 5797257
Statue of a famous peddler named Willem van Tongeren standing on the Dorpsstraat near the Church in Vaassen, The Netherland
Waymark Code: WMP174
Location: Gelderland, Netherlands
Date Posted: 06/08/2015
Views: 9
He wears an old coat and cap.
Under his arm he has a box and a bag in his hand.
The bronze statue is about 5 ft+ high and standing on a concrete base.
Willem van Tongeren: One of the last peddlers on the Veluwe in the center of Vaassen stands beside the Great Church statue of Willem van Tongeren.
Born in 1864 died in 1942.
One of the last peddlers who walked 20 to 30 kilometers a day on the eastern Veluwe.
From his parental home at Dellerweg he wandered around the eastern Veluwe. With his good-natured appearance, simple chat, his simple soul, he soon became well-known in this area. The big difficulty was the count, he could not. He went down to the size of the money. Half a cent was too little, he did not accept. Cents went pretty and large cents (four bucks or half penny = two and half cents), that was it! A dime and a penny 'big money' at that time were that eluded him. Eight pennies was much more than a small dime.
Source and more old pictures of Willem van Tongeren: (
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Artist: Paul Akkerman (1926-1988)
Place: Vaassen (Dorpsstraat)
Year: 1985
Material: Bronze